In recent years, demands have arisen for the provision of good photographic performance with the continuous processing of silver halide color photographic materials so as to provide photographic images which are stable with good photographic performance.
Conventionally, after imagewise exposure, silver halide color photographic materials have been processed, for example, by color development, bleaching, washing, fixing, stabilizing and drying, or by color development, bleach-fixing, water washing, stabilizing and drying.
Organic acid ferric complex salts are normally used as bleaching agents and thiosulfates are normally used as fixing agents in bleach-fixing processes. Sulfites are also used as preservatives for the thiosulfates.
In addition to reducing the level of aerial oxidation, sulfites also react with the organic acid ferric complex salts which are used as bleaching agents and they can decrease the oxidizing potential of the bleach-fixing bath (solution). If the amount of sulfite is reduced by aerial oxidation, degradation of the thiosulfate tends to occur in the bleach-fixing bath or in the following water washing bath or stabilizing bath which is used instead of water washing, and the stability of the bath is reduced. In order to overcome this problem, many methods, starting with those in which a movable lid which is opened when photographic material is being transported and closed when photographic material is not being transported, have been devised for reducing the area of contact (the open area) of the processing baths (solutions) with air in automatic processors (i.e., automatic developing machines) as described in JP-A-64-82033 (the term "JP-A" as used herein refers to a "published unexamined Japanese patent application").
Moreover, even if the open area of the bleach-fixing bath is simply reduced then in cases where a large quantity of photographic material is being processed in a continuous process, for example, ferrous ion is produced in the bleach-fixing bath by reaction between the sulfite and the organic acid ferric complex salt and by reaction between the metallic silver which has been formed by development and the organic acid ferric complex salt, the oxidizing capacity of the bleach-fixing bath is reduced. Thus, problems inevitably arise with color restoration failure or desilvering failure. However, the oxidizing capacity is not reduced in those cases where there is a large contact area between the bleach-fixing bath and the air since ferrous ion is more easily oxidized by the air than the sulfite.
Hence, it is necessary to resolve the conflict between preventing the occurrence of aerial oxidation of the sulfite and preventing the reduction in the oxidizing capacity of the bleach-fixing bath when determining the open area of the bleach-fixing bath and/or the water washing bath or the stabilizing bath which is used in place of a water washing, and an effective means for achieving this has been obtained.